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On to Oz
After spending two months in New Zealand – the first one wet and the second one dry – I drove to the Auckland Airport and boarded my plane bound for Australia, landing three hours later at the Sydney Airport. I'd wanted to visit Australia ever since I learned to sing "Waltzing Matilda" in the First Grade and I was finally here!
My euphoria was brief, though, because practicalities soon set in – like money, for one thing. Following the advice of the travel guru, Rick Steves, I decided that I wasn't going to bring traveler's checks (or "traveler's cheeks," as they call them in New Zealand) overseas, nor was I going to exchange currencies in banks, two strategies that I've used during my previous road trips. Instead, in each airport, I'd simply head to the nearest ATM with my bank card and withdraw as much cash as I needed.
I spotted an ATM while I was walking through the Sydney Airport, so I whipped out my bank card, popped it into the machine and – nothing. I removed the card, wiped it off, reinserted it and – still nothing. Apparently the card had gotten demagnetized or scratched or something, but no matter what I tried, I couldn't get it to work. No worries, though, because, and again following Rick Steves' advice, I'd brought along a backup bank card. This one worked (phew!) and I walked over to the car rental area.
Which brings me to the second issue: the car situation. Before leaving Auckland, I hadn't decided what to do about my transportation in Australia: should I rent a car, which would be easier, or buy a used car and then sell it after my two-month trip around Australia, which would be cheaper? I figured the best thing to do would be to rent a car for a week, check out the car situation in Sydney, then decide to either continue renting or to buy a car. As I always say, "When in doubt, procrastinate." So before leaving New Zealand, I had reserved a car online at the Sydney Airport.
I headed over to the Avis counter in the Sydney airport and talked to a friendly, young woman who, after doing some paperwork, handed me the keys to my week-long rental car.
I left the Sydney Airport (driving on the left side, like in New Zealand) and got on the freeway – or "Motorway" as they call it here. I was soon smack-dab in the middle of the afternoon rush-hour, however. I usually plan things carefully when I travel, but as I was slowly inching along the congested freeway, I realized that I didn't have a clue where I was going to stay that night. I just kept heading west and away from the congestion of Sydney, a city which reminded me of Los Angeles – not one of my favorite places. After about an hour on the Motorway, I got off the highway and found a motel in Liverpool, a city about 20 miles from Sydney and far from the madding crowd.
I unpacked in my motel room that evening, ate a quick dinner, then started scanning the local newspapers for cars on sale in the Sydney area. I didn't find much, so I took out my laptop and continued the search online. I discovered that cars are quite expensive in Australia, relatively speaking, so after about an hour I decided to rent, rather than buy, a car for my two-month trip around Oz. I clicked on Travelocity and reserved a car from Hertz for two months, which I could pick up in a week. I got a really good rate from Hertz, only US$17 a day for a brand-new automatic Toyota Corolla with A/C. I figured that since I'd be spending a few weeks driving across the Australian Outback during summer, when temperatures can easily surpass 100 degrees, it would be smarter to rent a new car rather than buy a used car and put my life in the hands of a beater. Yeah, I'm a wimp – but I'm a living wimp.
I had a week before I could pick up my Hertz rental, along with the boxes of camping gear that I'd mailed from Auckland to a post office in Sydney a few days earlier, so I decided to explore the Australian state of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital. I spent the next day in Liverpool getting ready for my trip, then I left on a sunny and warm Saturday morning and headed south on the Hume Highway, a four-lane freeway that links Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne.
I generally don't like freeways but after getting frustrated in New Zealand while driving on the seemingly-endless twisting and turning roads for the last two months, I really enjoyed getting on the Hume Highway and blasting past the eucalyptus groves at 65 mph – or 110 kilometers per hour, as they call it here. It felt like stretching my legs – ah, relief! After about an hour, though, I decided that I'd had my fill of "Life in the Fast Lane," so I got off the freeway and took the backroads to Canberra, which, admittedly, were much more interesting.
Above left: On the three-hour flight from Auckland to Sydney. Above center: Formula One Motels, like this one near Sydney, are common throughout Australia and Europe. They have tiny rooms for a tiny price. Above right: A parade in the small town of Moss Vale celebrating the local firefighters who had fought the massive bush fires near Sydney a few months earlier around Christmas time, the peak of the fire season. There were celebrations like this all over New South Wales. Good on ya', mates.
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